2009-11-03

WW2 Starships

The existence of the Japanese show Space Battleship Yamato has always bothered me on some level.  While I don't think they ever fought Americans or anything in the show, there's something in the very concept of resurrecting a sunken WW2 Japanese warship and wanking it out into a flying warship that gets under my skin, especially considering the reports of some unique perspectives on WW2 being taught in Japan's schools not too long ago.

(Presumably it's the same sort of reaction as the one I have to those select individuals in the southeastern United States who proclaim that "The South Will Rise Agin!" . . . a mixture of pity, disgust, and instant boredom.  "The Yamato will rise agin!")

All that having been said, I was pleased to note that someone has responded quite adequately to the challenge of Space Battleship Yamato.   May I present Cliff Vestergaard's "Space Ship B-17" . . . or, if you will, "Space Battlefortress B-17".

It's equal in wank factor, sure, but at least it's from the right side.


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

You think the Space Battleship Yamato is wanky? Wait until you get a load of the "anachronistic Space-British warship" HMS Warspite AND its Prussian nemesis RMK Scharnhorst!


Warspite:

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?p=3654374#post3654374

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?p=3659834#post3659834

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?p=3660055#post3660055


Scharnhorst:

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?p=3665315#post3665315

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?p=3665461#post3665461


Now THAT is a wank!

Ilithi Dragon said...

Gah! Damn my eyes! WTF?! There's more wank there than on a 30-year-old used playboy magazine...

Anonymous said...

"Gah! Damn my eyes! WTF?! There's more wank there than on a 30-year-old used playboy magazine..."

Which "there" do you mean? Anderson's examples, or mine? (I'm the same "Anonymous" who posted before)

Ilithi Dragon said...

Yours. I've seen the Space Battleship Yamato before, and generally avoid it for good reason (I'm told the story is good, but the people who tell me this are fans of anime in general, so their opinion is somewhat suspect...). The Space Ship B-17 is just funny, though.

Author said...

That is some retarded stuff. It's one thing to envision taking an existing thing and updating it (Yamato, a B-17, or even a space shuttle in Flag Full of Stars(TOS novel)), but to have new-build space battleships built just like their water-floating counterparts? The hell?

Ugh. I mean, I can't complain too much about people wasting their time on useless endeavors (and you're reading this site, so neither can you), but damn . . .

Sonofccn said...

Regarding the B-17:Cool and thanks for the image. In my biased opinion she was the best bomber in the war.

Regarding WW2 Japan: I remember turning off a godzilla flick, yes I know he's a guy in a rubber suit stomping on models,when they went back in time to kill wave after wave of US Marines storming an island.

Sonofccn said...

"That is some retarded stuff. It's one thing to envision taking an existing thing and updating it (Yamato, a B-17, or even a space shuttle in Flag Full of Stars(TOS novel)), but to have new-build space battleships built just like their water-floating counterparts? The hell?

Ugh. I mean, I can't complain too much about people wasting their time on useless endeavors (and you're reading this site, so neither can you), but damn . . .

"
Well it isn't like they were being serious, at least I hope not, just rule of cool. The British do have a long history of naval mastery and I'm sure 19th century, my guess I'm no expert on British naval periods, naval ships are most exciting and more easily romanticied than a "realistic" design. You get within sight of your enemy, possibly try and board her, blast her to rubble etc.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

By the time we had space-battleships, WWII would be as considered as ancient as Rome.

However as for "unique perspectives" on WWII, it's a fact that FDR could have been a role-model for Palpatine in terms of secretly fomenting war against Japan, as well as Germany.

Likewise, the South was legally in the right, since every state in the USA was founded and recognized individually, as sovereign-- while the Union claimed that it was a single nation, and furthermore didn't care about ending slavery until it became stratetgically convenient to do so.
And history is written by the victors, regarding both WWII and the War Between the States, so it's important to be objective in favor of the facts they don't tell you.

Anonymous said...

That B-17 would be a great concept for a Heavy Metal movie.

Tricericon said...

A few years ago there were rumors that Disney was going to make a movie about space battleship ARIZONA, based on the plot of the anime...

The problem I have with the whole concept is that sunken warships like the Yamato are war graves. A story about whizzing around the galaxy in a ship that looks like an old battlewagon is just a bit of silly fun. A story about whizzing around the galaxy in a tomb is disrespectful.

On the other subject, "The South Shall Rise Again" no longer has much if any connection to who had the legal right (the Confederacy) in 1861.